I was triggered today by an email from a friend and associate prison volunteer here in Maine. He had forwarded a link to a short film relating the stress of release from prison in the first few moments. The film is well done and gives a powerful message of despair and chaos that comes with abrupt and major life changes. Confusion reigns. Here is that link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/opinion/huntsville-station-reentry-prison.html?referringSource=articleShare
I watched the film and found it was done in Huntsville, Texas. The Huntsville prison is where executions are conducted in Texas. It is the only place. Lethal injection is the method. In fact one execution was held just a few hours ago. A man convicted of murder when he was 18 years old was executed this afternoon late in the day after 37 years on death row. I’m sure that doesn’t take long to sink in. For many reasons that does not seem right. The mention of Huntsville triggered memories of an afternoon I spent there in 2014. I wrote a note and sent it in an email to the group that was addressed on the original email. Here it is.
This is a powerful story, as you say, Steve.
Number 1 was Sam Houston’s grave and memorial.
Number 2 was a hamburger joint advertised to be the best in the world. It was good but I’ve had better.
Number 3, I found that Huntsville is the place in Texas where the executions are held. The death chamber is located in the prison here. I passed close to the prison on my way out of town and I discovered no matter how large Huntsville could ever be it would feel claustrophobic due to this last discovery. The whole hot sunny afternoon closed in on me tightly while I drove past that prison. It was palpable.
Playing Fair and Being Kind 